James P. Hogan was born in London in 1941. After studying electrical and mechanical engineering at the Royal Aircraft Establishment College, Farnborough, UK, he graduated as an electronics engineer specializing in digital systems. Later he became a sales executive with such companies as ITT and Honeywell, and eventually a Sales Training Consultant with DigitalEquipment Corporation's scientific computing group at Marlborough, Massachusetts.
He wrote his first novel in the mid 1970's and produced over 30 works of hard science fiction and nonfiction. In 1979 he became a full-time writer, moving to Florida, California, and finally to Ireland, where he died in 2010.